Amsterdam Schiphol Airport Hijack Incident

Passengers and crew have been evacuated from a plane at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport amid reports a knifeman tried to hijack the aircraft.

Dutch military police are responding to the incident, and there were suggestions earlier that hostages had been taken on the plane.

Images posted on social media showed parts of the airport’s D-pier cordoned off to the public. Flights are still landing at other parts of the airport.
An hour after the first reports, police said the passengers and crew were now safely off the aircraft.
A tweet posted on the airport’s official Twitter account confirmed that police were looking at “a situation on board of a plane.”
The nature of the incident has not been confirmed and police say the investigation is ongoing.
The incident was described as a GRIP-3 situation, Dutch officials said, meaning an incident or serious event with major consequences to a local population.
One journalist at the scene tweeted images showing emergency vehicles on the airport’s tarmac.
Other photographs showed passengers caught up in the disruption waiting around the terminal area awaiting further information.

Schiphol is one of the busiest transport hubs in Europe, handling more than 70 million passengers a year.

False alarm causes disruption

But after people were evacuated from the plane, Air Europa announced a pilot had accidentally set off an alert.

Fast Facts You Need to Know

• Police investigating suspicious situation on plane at Amsterdam Schiphol airport
• Reports on Twitter suggest men armed with knives were trying to hijack a plane 
• Images on social media show passengers stood behind cordon as police watch